This report on Dutch art is intended to show,
without going into great detail, the most important
Dutch artists as they were influenced by,and,in turn,
influenced the rest of the world. The major artists of
Holland are put in order according to the relative
position they had in Dutch art. Sometimes the order is
by style, sometimes by date, and sometimes by influence,
whichever makes for a clearer picture of the whole.
Specifics of each major figure were omitted due to the
volume of information which would have had to been dealt
with, only the most important information for this
overview of several centuries of creative work has been
included.

figure ) map of Holland and the United Netherlands
figure 1) map of Holland and the United Netherlands

Dutch Art

Introduction

"If literature is the expression of society,
it may be said with equal truth that art is the expression
of a nation. It would be particularly true of the
Dutch people. Their robust solidity; their preference
for the substance rather than the shadow; their
absence of spiritual speculation; their reliability
and piety; their contentment with the well ordered
state of things all are expressed in their art. They
are happy in themselves and do not submit easily to
the influence of others. Lacking in inventiveness,
they have, so unlike the French, originated no new
movements, suffered no revolutions in art. They are
eminently traditionally though it is true, that they
were the first to treat maritime painting seriously.
They also devised those curiously hard, decorative
flower paintings, which, admirably performed, are still
sought by collectors." 1

The art of the Dutch is stamped with the hall-mark
of sincerity. Dutch art from the sixteenth century on has
maintained a consistently high level of excellence, all
strictly within its limitations. Art is essentially
the expression of emotion and the Dutch are not a
particularly emotional people. Although no nation
maintained more consistently so high a level of excellence
in painting, it must be noted that much of Dutch painting
falls short of the highest art.

"With their somewhat materialistic point of view,
they were interested in things in objects as such, not
as the means of exploring abstract qualities such as
subtle harmonies of colour or new expressions of form
(here, Rembrandt was the great exception)." 2

0

The Dutch take the view that a painting is to
be looked at, beer is to be drunk and life is to be
lived without the aid of a tedious libretto. With
one or two notable exceptions, the Dutch have not
produced poets, playwrights, novelists, letter-writers
or critics of the first rank. They prefer to act and
wordlessly to contemplate, not to involve themselves
in comment or analysis, and thus during the golden
century of their art they made only sparce notes about
their greatest painters.

This reticence in prose had its counterpart
in art. During Rembrandt's lifetime the Dutch people,
numbering fewer than three million, produced several accomplished
prodigies. They threw off the yoke of Spain and established
an independent nation. On the sea they challenged
England and for a time forced that great maritime
power into second place. The Channel and the North
Sea, the green, rich Indies of the East and West
heard the thunder of their cannon and saw the triumph
of their flag. But Dutch artists rarely glorified
such things; instead they perfected the still life.

"Unlike the art of other countries, Dutch art
cannot readily be divided into periods. It was not
marked by startling changes or developments, but
pursued an even course, maintaining a high standard
of efficiency with a certain number of outstanding
figures. It was essentially normal." 3

"Decadence set in in Dutch art at an earlier
date than was the case with other schools. The eighteenth
century was a brilliant period in England, but in
Holland it marked a sharp decline in the art of painting.
Moreover, the period of decline lasted longer than
elsewhere. Although Dutch art had maintained for a
very long time a high level of consistent achievement,
with moments of exceptional brilliancy, it had shown

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no signs of development. This was due mainly to the
lack of an adventurous spirit and to the immunity
of the nation to foreign influence in art, which may
be good or bad but is usually stimulating. The very
excellence of their predecessors had a depressing
effect on the later painters. Unaware of new worlds
to conquer, they were faced with the problem of painting
the old familiar themes, without the possibility of
throwing new light on them or of surpassing the excellence
of previous technical achievement. For it so happened
that at the end of the seventeenth century there was
a fairly general lowering of the standard of talent
among painters.

The spirit of invention the discovery of new
methods of expression and new angles of perception -
which animates independent art, never very strong in
Dutch art, was practically non existent. Nothing was
to be met with, in all branches of art, but mechanical
imitation of the greater masters. So work became
mannered, affected and exaggerated. Study of nature
was neglected; large works were merely decorative;
small paintings were burdened with insignificant detail.
Curiously enough, foreign influence played its part
in bringing about decline. But the influence was
social and popular rather than artistic." 4

Medieval Art

figure 2) the prophet Ezekiel
medieval Art

"Many streams flowed into what we call Medieval
art classical naturalism, Oriental color, Egyptian
designs, barbarian carvings but they were all united
and transformed by an overwhelming single force, the
Christian faith. Medieval art is primarily the art of
this faith. Its subjects are most often scenes from
the Gospels or the lives of the Saints. The major patron,
both in the East and the West, is the church. Whether

the result is a Russian icon or an Irish manuscript,
we feel behind them the consistent force of an ordered
spiritual realm of common belief." 5

"What we call Medieval Art is largely that of
Europe during the Middle Ages, a loosely applied term
which encompasses many territories and periods. But it
is united as its art shows, by an ordered spiritual
realm of common belief, the Christian faith. Medieval
art is predominantly the art of this faith, and its chief
patron, for over a thousand years, is the church. After
the collapse of the military order of the Roman Empire,
it was the spiritual order centered in the church that
was to organize and build a rich, flourishing civilization
that reached its peak in Europe in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.

In all this, Byzantium plays a special and mighty
role. In many ways a separate, static and local culture,
the Eastern Roman Empire is also the mother and transmitter
of much that we call Medieval. It directly influenced
not only the art of Greece, Russia and Armenia, but of
Italy as well, as Venice and Ravena bear witness. Less
directly, through trade, and the reverse cultural impact
of the crusades, it planted the seeds of the styles.
which, transformed by local influences, became Romanesque
and Gothic."

"The variety and inventiveness of Medieval art
owes much to the interchange and confrontation of two
legacies the classical tradition of figurative art and
the Near Eastern love of color and abstract design.
Greco-Roman art, although often submerged, never did
die out. Classical prototypes were admired, repeatedly
imitated and incorporated into existing local styles,
especially in those areas which maintained an uninterrupted
link with the past, such as the old Roman capital of
Constantinople.

The art of the Near East, with its strong love
for the decorative, flowed into Europe through Constantinople
or was brought by the migratory peoples from Central
Asia. Egypt, with its hieroglyphic writing, made
familiar an art which fused picture with symbol. In
some instances the influence can be traced directly.
A Coptic textile depicts water with decorative symbols
of fish and plants in an Egyptian fashion that goes
back to the old kingdom.

Catalyzed by the Christian faith, with its
other worldly bent, its new iconography and need to
glorify God, these two traditions blended to produce
the changing variety of Medieval Art. Because classical
standards of beauty have predominated since the
Renaissance, it is only in the last few decades that
this art has come to be widely appreciated. Motivated
primarily by faith, Medieval art has often reached
the heights of forceful expressiveness and inspired
fantasy of spirit. Its rich decoration, brilliant
coloring and directness of form, its charming disregard
of the limits of classical naturalism, give it a
freshness, sincerity and beauty that we are only now
beginning to discover."7

The Renaissance of the North

Between the active periods of Hubert Van Eyck
and Pieter Brueghel lies a span of 150 years. Within
this century and a half, in the Western world, much of the
course of aesthetic creation was redirected. At this
time the Middle Ages were on their way out and the
Renaissance was beginning. This was a time when old
social, political and religious forms were disintegrating,
often painfully and chaotically. The ways in which
man was looking at himself and his environment were
being revolutionized.

It was in the cultural centers of the Low Countries
where the first signs of a break with Medieval styles
and concepts, north of the alps, became apparent. This
came about due to the policies of the Dukes of Burgundy
who, under their rule, allowed a period of economic
prosperity which was highly conductive to artistic
pursuits. Artists and craftsmen who had earlier found
employment abroad were now able to live and work in
the Low Countries and this area was soon one of Europes
most important centers of art.

The growing patronage of artists by the nobility
and clergy was of crucial importance amid all of the
factors that made artistic development of this period
possible. At this time there was also an increasingly
important class of rich merchant patrons helping the
development of artistic growth. Because the number of
commissions grew rapidly, the social status of some of
the more gifted artists improved. The outstanding artist
now became a person of high esteem.

The first requirement for a break with the
conventional spirit that pervaded the art world was
freedom from economic ties to the guilds. Because striking

innovations were not encouraged by the guilds, new ideas
and departures from the conventional started to appear
when the appreciation of painting became more and more
the fashion among the wealthy and the upper clergy.
These patrons competed with one another to obtain the
finest talents and enjoyed having an unusual or controversial
work done for them. This allowed the artists to be
regularly employed which in turn allowed them to break
away from the guilds which further allowed the development
of new concepts and the experimentation with untried
techniques.

As the art world began to grow and flourish
the artists were no longer content to remain in the
small niche of society that had up until this time
been their station in life. The artists in the North,
like their colleagues in the South, experienced an
increasing desire to attain the Renaissance ideal of
the universal man. As the artists changed their concepts
about themselves they also changed their concepts toward
the environment which caused them to see the world in
a whole different light. This was the beginning of the
landscape being used as a subject in itself.

The following eight painters can be credited with
originating the most important techniques and approaches
that were to influence generations of artists after them
and, perhaps more important, helped change the ways in
which man looked at himself and his surroundings.

The next four painters are not Dutch, but rather
are German. They are included because they had a great
influence on the work that was done by their Dutch
contemporaries, and they help to give a better idea of
the stage of art at that given time.

Matthias Grunewald

figure 3) Disputation of Erasmus
Matthias Grunewald

Matthias Grunewald is considered to be one of
the best German painters of all time. He was born @ 1475
and was thus in his full maturity during the momentous
social and religious uphevals that disrupted Germany
in the early sixteenth century. Details of the early
part of his life are sketchy at best, but it would
appear that he became a superintendent of works and
architect in the service of Uriel Gemmingen, the Archbishop
of Mainz. The connection of Grunewald to Dutch art lies
in the fact that he, like Bosch, derives his art from
no known sources. He represents an individual autonomous
development of late-Gothic art. Although he lived and
worked in centers of culture that were heavily influenced

by the ideals of the Italian Renaissance, he did not
try to emulate its common forms but remained an isolated
phenomenon. Grunewald became involved in a peasent
uprising in 1527 and later became a hydraulics engineer
at Halle, where he died in 1528.

Albrecht Durer

figure 4) Portrait of a Young Man
Albrecht Durer

1 Albrecht Durer is a second German artist who
had a great deal of influence on Dutch art at this time.
Durer influenced the course of artistic thinking in
Northern Europe, he was a northern counterpart of Leonardo
da Vinci. Durer introduced ideas that represented a
watershed in the history of art in the North. He was
born in 1471 and was the single artist whose achievements
in the form of engravings, paintings and writings did
more than anybody else to influence the course of artistic
thinking in Northern Europe.

5 Durer traveled to Italy several times where his
mind was opened to the wealth of Italian Renaissance ideas.

0

After his second trip to Italy he became dissatisfied with
the Italian forms and attempted to find the absolute
inevitable laws of beauty. He underwent a spiritual
crisis and a decided change came over his art and he
became interested in religious images.

Durer died in 1528.

Lucas Cranach

figure 5) Venus and Cupid
Lucas Cranach

6 Lucas Cranach was the third major German artist
influence of this period. He was born in Kronach in 1472.
He belonged to the Danube School (he was the most important
figure) which was a very strong influence along the Danube
and in Switzerland. He was so much in demand as an artist
that he employed a large number of assistants and apprentices
in his workshop, and mass produced portraits, religious
themes etc. The assembly line manufacture of art naturally

caused the loss of the freshness which characterized his
earlier works. Recent observers have credited him with
a search for entirely new forms of beauty.

Lucas Cranach died in 1553 in Weirmar.

Hans Holbein

figure 6) Anne of Cleves

Hans Holbein

7 Hans Holbein is the last important master of the
German Renaissance. He was born in Augsburg in 1497.
The artist was introduced, as Durer had been, to
Humanist circles. In 1525 Holbein traveled to France
where he worked on several religious pieces and where
he also probably became familiar with the work of
Leonardo da Vinci. Like most artists of the time, Holbein
worked for royalty as well as the wealthy.

Holbein died in 1543, in London.

Van Eyck to Brueghel

"The year 1432 was a landmark in Western painting.
The unveiling of the Adoration of the Lamb by the
brothers Van Eyck demonstrated once and for all the
new psychological depth, individualism and aesthetic
sensibility that was to sweep away stylized Medieval
conceptions of art. A century and a half later, Pieter
Brueghel rounded out the cycle with his elaborately
detailed portrayals of ordinary humanity and unabashed
love of naturalistic landscape." 8

0

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck

figure 7) Detail of Virgin and Child

Hubert and Jan Van Eyck

The two painters at the start of this period
whose achievements had the greatest impact on the
development of painting in the North are the brothers
Hubert and Jan Van Eyck. Both were apparently born
in Maaseyck, Hubert @ 1366 and Jan @ 1387. Hubert
appears to have been in the service of William IV of
Bavaria, the Duke of Holland, for whom he contributed
to a series of miniatures, Jan also had a hand in
completing the series, but Hubert must be credited with

the most outstanding among these miniatures. It is
possible that Jan learned the skills of painting from
Hubert and finished several of the paintings which
Hubert had started. Both Van Eycks worked for the royalty
of Holland and produced several fine works of art, as
well as other commissions for the wealthy. The most
important work of the Van Eycks is without doubt the
Ghent alter polyptych. It is believed that Hubert did
most of the preliminary design and Jan took over after
his brothers death, but even so Jans' contribution was
major.

9 The portraits by Jan represent a breakthrough.
Whereas his predecessors had mainly adapted the faces of
their models to a stylized ideal, Jan painted them as
possessed of individual character.

The works of Hubert and Jan Van Eyck are characterized
by an ethereal beauty achieved by a subtle handling
of color and form, but it is equally for their realistic
innovations that they are known.

Hieronymous Bosch

figure 8) Detail of the Temptation of St Anthony
Hieronymous Bosch
10
"Of all the painters of allegory, Hieronymous
Bosch stands out as certainly the finest and most
original. For almost five hundred years his works have
proved fascinating to scholars and lay observers alike.
The wealth of strange and sometimes seemingly inconceivable

0

beings and objects which confront one in viewing
any of his works has elicited numerous theories on Bosch's
A4 objectives. Some have thought him to be a heretic,
painting alters for some strange cult involving orgiastic
rites. More likely, however, he was expressing symbolically
the mood of the church and its prevailing philosophy
of that time. Though the original meanings of the
symbolism may be lost to us forever. Boschts fantastic
visions can be personally interpreted or not, as one
chooses, without in any way detracting from the works'
artistic merit." 9

Bosch's name derives from the Dutch town where he
was born, @ 1450, where he spent most of his life,
and where he died. He was also known as Hieronymous
Van Aachen. It is not known for whom Bosch painted his
strange and haunted pictures, but it is quite possible
that he painted only for himself because he married a
wealthy lady and did not need commissions.

Bosch's work is as unusual as it is disconcerting.
At every moment the viewer is confronted with beings,
objects and situations that strain the limits of the
imagination. Many art critics and scholars have formed
several hypothesis as to the symbolism found in the
paintings that Bosch has done. He was working at a
time when the foundations of the Medieval World were
being shaken, and the Catholic church was confronted
with ideas and trends that some saw as liberating,
others as dangerous. Bosch was no doubt of the latter
opinion and in the world around him saw nothing but sin,
vice, madness and depravity. He believed that mankind
was rushing to its doom and his concern was to sound the
alarm, to bring man back to the path of truth that he had
lost. Bosch's art does not seem to follow any type of
pattern set forth by previous artists.

1l Bosch's most original and captivating works, if
not the most powerful, are the triptycks and separate panels

that probably once were part of larger ensembles. It is believed
that he painted them in his artistic maturity, @ 1480 and
1510. (none of his works were dated)

Hieronymous Bosch died in 1516.

Pieter Brueghel

figure 9) The Cripples

Pieter Brueghel

15 "It is often said that the Netherlands has produced
more than its share of the world's great painters. Pieter
Brueghel, the Elder, who painted in the middle years
of the sixteenth century, is among the most important
of these artists. As painter of landscapes, Brueghels
works often emphasize religious and moral themes in
which his gift for visual satire is given full play.

16 As a young painter, Brueghel travelled through
Italy and France and crossed the Alps. Later, in his
religious and satirical works, he combined the themes
he wished to convey with sweeping landscape backdrops.
Many of these backgrounds reminiscent of French and
Italian countryside stretch far into the distance
and are characterized by a precision of detail gleaned

from the painter's earlier travels, Brueghels foregrounds,
however, often depict his satirical, sometimes humorous
visions of mankind going about its business or pleasure.

17 Thought to have been influenced by Italian painters
of his period, especially Titian, Pieter Brueghel perhaps
surpasses them in his masterly blending of man and the
world about him." 10

Pieter Brueghel was born @ 1529 and spent many
of his younger years in Antwerp. There is not much
information available on Brueghel himself, and what
information there is is poor and often contradictory.
The only way to become familiar with Brueghel is to look
at and then analyze his works on an individual level.

Pieter Brueghel died in 1569.

"Dutch painting of the seventeenth century
has such a distinctive character that one easily
overlooks its ties with the Baroque style as an
international phenomenon. Baroque art, however, seems
to defy an all-embracing definition. It finds more
eloquent expression in the absolute Catholic countries
than in the Protestant Republic of the United Netherlands.

Holland finds its place in this concept of seventeenth
century art, however, with modifications. Dutch painting
can be considered a part of Baroque art, since the latter
embraces realism as well as classicism, but, in the
case of Holland, realism is more important than classicism."
"Hollands deviation from the international movement,
owing to her national and cultural peculiarities, is
at least as significant as her participation in it.
In Holland alone was to be found the phenomenon of an
all-embracing realism which was unparalleled in both
comprehensiveness and intimacy. The Dutch described
their life and their environment, their country and
their city sights so thoroughly that their paintings
provide a nearly complete pictorial record of their
culture. However, it was more than mere reportage.
A sensitive feeling for the painterly beauty of everyday
life and nature not infrequently raised their production
to the level of great art.

This new phenomenon of a comprehensive realism,
along with a high standard of artistic craftsmanship,
may explain the unusual degree of specialization in
subject matter on the part of the individual artist,
which in itself constitutes a striking feature of
Dutch painting."

"During the seventeenth century the Republic
of the United Netherlands developed a very individual
culture which did not have much in common with the
ideals that governed the art of neighboring Flanders
and the greater part of Europe. After a long and heroic

struggle under the military leadership of the princes
of the House of Orange the Dutch freed themselves from
the Spanish yoke." The new rulers at this time gave
very few commissions to Rembrandt and neither the
government or the new bourgeois patronized Frans Hals,
Vermeer, Ruisdael or Jan Steen not to mention other
outstanding Dutch painters.''"

There was much internal fighting among the
seven provinces that made up the Netherlands as the
people tried to decide who was in power and how the
country should be run. The province of Holland was the
largest and wealthiest of the seven but in 1651
representatives of the seven provinces met and agreed
that all sovereign powers belonged to them severally
and that there was no need for a captain-general of
the union. The period directly following this decision
(1653-1672) was the period of the republics greatest
economic and cultural flowering.

"The sociological structure of the Netherlands
was to a certain extent democratic during the first
decades of the century. It showed little signs of
militaristic or aristocratic character. Only slowly
did the bourgeois circles take on aristocratic tendencies
and habits. For a time the well-to-do families who
monopolized the higher offices in the administration
of the provinces remained in constant contact with the
lower classes of the population by such organizations
as the shooting companies or the societies of rhetoricians." 13
The numerous portrait paintings of preachers are a
good indication of how important religious life was
in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century.

"Dutch painting in its prime is one of the great
achievements in the history of art, and it has all the
aspects of a truely creative period when sureness of
instinct and quality of performance hold a safe balance.
Yet the long and traditional acceptance of seventeenth

0

century Dutch painting as a culmination of realism
in Western art, and its persistent influence on later
periods, in particular the nineteenth century, may have
hindered a fresh view in recent times and blunted our
consciousness of its true originality and significance." 14

0

Rembrandt and the Dutch School

1,1 "In the early years of the seventeenth century,
Holland was like a young giant, suddenly aware of his
power and strength. Spain was beaten back, trade
flourished, and the citizens of the Dutch Republic
found themselves in a mood to rebuild their war-stricken
country and to celebrate their personal achievements.

The chief glory, although inevitably not recognized
at the time, was to be the immortal "Lord of Light",
Rembrandt Harmenz Van Rijn of Leyden, whose unparalleled
mastery of technique and profound psychological insight
created masterworks of truth and radiance that place
him among the greatest and most human artists of all
times and all places. But there was almost a superfluity
of painters of genius, Vermeer, whose canvases of monumental
stillness are art treasures of the first ranks Hals and
Steen, who so magnificently captured the Dutch lust
for life; Ruisdael and Hobbema, who painted matchless
images of their native countryside."e15

Rembrandt

figure 10) Portrait of Jan Six
Rembrandt

20 Rembrandt, one of the most gifted artists of
the seventeenth century, earned the title Master of
Light. He has been dubbed the Lord of Light due to
his mastery in making his subject matter become radiantly
alive. His life was a drama, a success, and finally a
financial disaster. His luminist handling of paint
and his unfailing psychological insight made him the
outstanding genius of Dutch seventeenth century painting,
as well as one of the greatest artists that the world

has ever known.

Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn was born in Leyden
in 1606 and was the son of a well-to-do miller. At
the age of fourteen Rembrandt was sent to the University
at Leyden where he stayed for only a short while.
His natural talents in drafting and painting soon
became obvious and he began to study under a local
painter, Jacob Van Swanenburch. Rembrandt remained
with Swanenburch for three years, but it would appear
that he did not learn more than the basics of the
craft.

-I For his subject material he rejected the usual
classical and mythological allusions and used instead
the time honored source, the bible, For his first
ideas and compositions. This met with very favorable
reactions in the predominantly protestant Holland.

From 1624 to 1631 he worked in Leyden and painted
2 members of his family and himself. At this time he
was using a broad, fatty technique. He focused on
'23 opposition of light and shade and used the wrong
end of the brush to clearly and deeply delineate hair
and beard. In 1625 his earliest religious painting
"the Stoning of St. Steven" was completed. Although the
painting is dramatic and colorful it is still crude
and the composition is crowded. Even so, at this time
he was already outdistancing his contemporaries.

In 1631 he settled in Amsterdam. This area was
experiencing a growing demand for portrait painters
and Rembrandt wasted no time in stepping in. From
this experience Rembrandt profited much. His style
was initially modelled upon that of Thomas de Keyzer
and Nicholas Elias. This meant that his style became
very precise and accurate and all of his work was carefully
26 done. His style gradually evolved into a radiant and

more progressive technique. The painting that became
decisive for his reputation was "The Anatomy Lesson"
This work was commissioned by Dr. Tulp for the Surgeons
Guild. It was his first group portrait but was marred
by imperfections in the balance of the composition.
Although the work did have several imperfections it
contained Rembrandtesque lighting and psychological
insight.

Through his associations with the art dealer
Hendrik Van Uylenburgh, he met the letters niece,
Saskia, and they were later married. At this time
and for the next eight years, until Saskias death,
30 Rembrandt led a brilliant and successful life and
commissions flowed in. Rembrandt used his wife quite often
as a model, and she was an inspiration toward his
3/ paintings, Danae, Potiphurs Wife and Susannah. The
death of Saskia and mounting financial problems
marked the end of Rembrandts social apogee.

Rembrandts downfall started, ironically, with
one of his greatest paintings, The Night Watch, which
was begun while Saskia lay dying. The picture met
with disfavor because it failed to portray each
participent equally, although each had contributed
an equal share to the creation of the portrait.
After this it was a long time before he received
another guild commission.

33 Saskia died in 1642 and Rembrandt was left as a
lonely widoer with one surviving son, Titus. Hendrickje
Stoffels became Rembrandts mistress and model, and
stepmother to his son. Because of financial problems
Rembrandt could not marry his mistress but she bore
him a child in 1652. Hendrickje took care of the
aging artist and along with his son Titus set up an
art store and took Rembrandt in as a partner. This
was in 1660. In exchange for his art, Rembrandt received
free room and board. His poverty took Rembrandt

farther and farther away from the mainstream of
Amsterdam society and he began to use more and more
as models beggars, poor Jews, and exiles. This period
produced such masterpieces as Saint Simon. Rembrandt
continued to grow as an artist despite all of his
39
difficulties. He encountered nature as a pictorial
event, and as far as poetic power and dramatic force
are concerned, nothing equaled has been produced
in Dutch art.

[16 In his last years Rembrandt pursued his dreams
if light and imagination using pen, etching needle and
brush. He evolved from Baroque theatricality toward a
wonderful simplicity. The Rembrandt of these years
was an embodiment of humanity. He left behind the concepts
of surface brilliance, lopsided contours and broadened
brushstroke. He portrayed the depth and tragedy of
life with an emotion charged with truly Biblical
sincerity.

Rembrandt died in utter solitude in 1669.

Frans Hals

.-
--
~
:. -

figure 11) Singing Boy with Flute
Frans Hals

37 Frans Hals was born in Antwerp in 1580 and fitted
perfectly into the sentiment of the times. His first
picture dated 1613 and was titled "Pieter Schrivver".
The picture itself is undistinguished, but his 1616
"Officers of the St. George Guild" is the first of his
famous group portraits. This picture portrayed many of
the same ideas and values as did Rembrandts "Night Watch".
Until this time, group portraits had the individuals
posed in rows to allow for even exposure of each
person. Hals broke with this tradition by breaking

the sitting up into groups that stood, sat and bent
toward each other. His brushstroke became more fluid
and his execution more improvised.

30 From the 1620's on, Hals developed into one
of the most novel and artistic craftsmen of his time.
The contemporary fashions of careful contours, delicate
modeling and attention to detail were all broken by
Hals. He liberated his brush in a manner that foreshadows
Manet. Hals created a liveliness in his work by
manipulating his brush strokes from thick to thin.

Hals was an absolute extrovert, at his best with
the drunken and brawling life of the taverns. His
blazing brush modeled the subject matter with vast
speed, tremendous effectiveness, and a distaste for
minor details. During his last period he discontinued
the use of color and worked in harmonies of grey and
black.

He died in 1666 and was buried as a pauper.

Salomon Van Ruysdael

_- *-i;. = Q,

".^ ...- A,

figure 12) The Ferry Boat
Salomon Van Ruysdael

Salomon Van Ruysdael was born in Harlem in 1600
and has generally been linked with Jan Van Goyen. Both
of these painters seem to have followed parallel artistic
evolutions. They became known for their use of broad
expanses, high skys and a painterly approach to the
flat Dutch landscape. The artist specialized in
monochrome tonalities, as opposed to the brown-green
palatte of previous landscape artists, and resolved
his paintings into more colorful realizations. Van
Ruysdael worked mostly on trees, canals and wide views
of the countryside,

Jacob Van Ruisdael

figure 13) The Windmill

Jacob Van Ruisdael

Jacob is the nephew of Salomon Van Ruysdael and
was born in Harlem in 1628. He was never married and
seems to have been sick for the better part of his life.
At first glance, Van Ruisdaels paintings do not
enchant the spectator. All of his paintings contain
a thoughtful, melancholical streak, which in later
O. years grew to a full-fledged romantic approach. His
works have a poetic and elegiac mood and there is a
certain grandeur and monumentality applied to the

LI3 aspects of nature chosen by the artist. Nowadays
we favor Rembrandt and Seghers in this specialty,
but Ruisdael without doubt belongs to the most
profound interpreters of the Dutch land.

Jacob Van Ruisdael died in 1682.

Jan Steen

-J

figure 14) Peasant's Revels in an Inn
Jan Steen

Jan Steen was born in Leyden in 1626 and was
the painter of the common folk of Holland. He portrayed
his subjects in their revels, their misfortunes,
their lust for life and their downfalls. He has become
one of the most valued interpreters of Dutch life in
its most earthbound, filled with gusto style.

The output of Steen was considerable, and
although marred by a few bad canvases his quality of
work equalled the best in the country except for
Rembrandt, His best works include the "Twelfth Night",
"The World Turned Upside Down", and "Peasants Revels
in an Inn", In these works his talent flows freely
as he adds a point of morality when he interprets
fooling and merrymaking.

Pieter De Hooch

figure 15) Dutch Courtyard

Pieter De Hooch

Pieter De Hooch was born in Rotterdam in 1629,
and studied under Nicolas Berchem, who transmitted
Rembrandts influence. The first series of paintings
that he completed were mostly sketchily done in the
manner of Duyster and Dirk Hals, At the age of 26 he
established himself in Delft where he remained for
about twelve years. He later moved to Amsterdam where
his technique became superficial and decorative.

At the height of his Delft career De Hooch
rivaled Vermeer in both subject matter and depth of
execution. He used a palet with a warm glow and concerned
himself with relationships of space and patterns of
color rather than outward semblance. His concern was
of personal relationships and less monumental subjects.
As a painter, his work spoke more to the heart than
the mind. De Hooch is the plausible interpreter of
Dutch patrician living.

It is believed that Pieter De Hooch died in 1684.

Jan Vermeer Van Delft

figure 16) The Little Street

Jan Vermeer Van Delft

Vermeer was born in 1632 in Delft where the main
industry was the famous pottery association. Many of
the ideas that were incorporated in the pottery designs
came from the Dutch East Indies and Vermeer was surely
influenced by them. Some of the prototypes were derived
from Buddhistic art and the exotic emptiness along with
the outstanding balance of tensions in his curiously
lifeless figures. monumentally placed in space, give
his works a transcendental quality rarely found in
Western painting,

0

His first known work is "The Procuress" of 1656
which has strong ties to the Italian masters. It is
possible that Vermeer had traveled to Italy and brought
back to Holland many new concepts.

Vermeer was married in 1652 and the couple had
a large number of children which caused some financial
problems.

5 Vermeer became a great painter because his art
is based on painterly attractiveness. He has been called
the painters painter. In contrast to Rembrandt whose
light falls in bundles into the somberness of the
background, Vermeer prefers an overall clear sunshine
that pervades all the nooks and corners of his pictures.
He was his luminist self when he used light to fashion
and trace few single figures. His art constitutes
a curious distillation of life by which he creates pure
form, color and space.

Technically his paintings are extremely carefully
executed, his colors meet very neatly, his pallette is
cool and his textures are flat and granular. His
painting "The View of Delft" stands alone, as a
landscape, in its excellence and modernity in the whole
of the seventeenth century. The painting has been even
more appreciated in the nineteenth and twientieth
centuries and has influenced many modern Dutch painters.

Vermeer died in 1675 and left his widow nothing
more than 26 of his pictures.

Meindert Hobbema

figure 17) The Watermill

Meindert Hobbema

53 Meindert Hobbema, the Amsterdam painter, was
born in 1638. His early works had a close relationship
to those of Jacob Van Ruisdael, but he later found
his own formula based upon a wealth of details. Hobbema
was married at the age of thirty and took a job
working for the administration of the city which caused
him to paint less. If Ruisdael was philosophically
inclined, Hobbema was the poet who sang the beauty of
his Dutch homeland in paint.

Meindert Hobbema died in Amsterdam, a pauper, in1709,

V
. -.4

During the eighteenth century Dutch artists
were trying to use the forms by which they could
express the information that they acquired by observation,
as well as the creations of their imagination and the
feelings of their hearts. Dutch artists followed the
conception of the "heroic" landscapes of the classical
artists. At this time the Dutch artists were considered
to be very good at landscapes, seascapes, portraits,
genre and still life and architecture. Although the
Dutch were thought to be very good at art at this time
they were not as progressive as the rest of the art world
and as a group they suffered.Because of this it appears
that not very much of significance occurred in Dutch art
during the eighteenth century.

Many of the painters included here under the
sections on Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism are
not Dutch, but as before, had a very great influence
on the Dutch painters and artists of their time. It
is important to look at these individuals, even only
slightly, to see the events that led up to one of
the greatest Dutch painters of all time, that being
Vincent Van Gogh.

Impressionism

"The first centennial of Impressionism undoubtedly
would attract little attention if the Impressionist
movement were of no more than historical interest. And
whatever the extent of its influence on twientieth century
art, it would be less appreciated today if it had not
given us a splendid series of masterworks. When we look
at these paintings we see that, although their artists had
much in common, they were each powerful personalities who
expressed their uniqueness in a clear and decisive way.
If Impressionism today is justly considered as being one
of the great periods in the history of painting, it is
thanks to their work."

Although the origins of Impressionist painting
go back to the middle 1860's, the very picture that
inspired Impressionism, the famous Port of Le Harve,
which was painted by Monet and termed Impression-Sunrise.,
was painted in 1872.

"The first exhibition which in 1874 gathered the
representatives of the new school of painting together
in Paris, at the studio of Nadar the photographer, is
for the history of art an event of such importance that
one tends to think its organizers too realized its
significance and wished to stress it to the public. This was
not so. The artists who took part in this exhibition
presented themselves to the Parisians under the simple
title of a Limited Co-operative Company of Painters,
Sculptors, Engravers, etc... They did not think of
drawing up a manifesto. They did not want to establish a
school. Besides, they did not all belong to the same
tendency, nor did they all show the same qualities. In
fact thirty of them exhibited and eight of them only,
Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Berthe Morisor, Guillaumin,
Degas and Cezanne, were to become famous Impressionists.
(Bazille was no longer one of them he had been killed

during the war of 1870).

Does this mean that these formed a homogeneous
group? Their temperments differed and their interests, as
we shall see, were on certain points opposed. But
what they had in common was the rejection of all that
was dear to academic painting, historical, mythological
and sentimental subjects, over-polished finish, dull
tar-like colours. They also shared the determination
to produce contemporary painting. They took their subjects
from the everyday reality of their time and tried to
express their sensations with sincerity, even should this
force them to go against the rules of time-honored
tradition. To a certain extent they were all agreed in
wanting to put on canvas, not what the painter knows of
things, but only what strikes him at the precise moment
when he paints. Besides, most of them showed a preference
for the hazy landscapes of the Ile de France, for skies
continually being transformed by cloud, for the shimmering
reflections on the moving waters of the Seine and the Oise,

The analysis of luminous phenomena led them to
break new ground in the field of Technique. They limited
their pallette to the colours of the spectrum and took
into account the laws of complementary colours. Knowing
that complementary colours applied side by side heighten
each other, whereas if mixed destroy each other, they
applied their colours pure, in little dabs and accents
without always avoiding, it is true, their crossing
and confusion; for their principles were applied instinctively
and not systematically. Nevertheless their painting
became much lighter than that of any of their predecessors
since Leonardo da Vinci and they gave the world outside
a freshness, a youthfulness and, more than anything else,
a variety of light effects that had never been known
before in Europe." 17

"Nothing seems easier at first sight than defining
Impressionism. Since the movement is well-known, it
would seem to be enough to name the painters who were
associated with it and to define the characteristics
of their works. But when one pays close attention
to the distinctive traits of each painter, one quickly
realizes that in certain areas there are many more
contrasts than simularities.

Some Impressionist painters, for example, can
be defined as working in an orthodox manner (especially
Monet, Pissarro, Sisley) There are others for whom
Impressionism served only as a stimulus, a friendly
environment, a shortlived temptation, a stage in their
development or a starting point. It is important, when
all of these artists are brought together under the
title of Impressionism, not to lose sight of these
differences. Of course it would be wrong to try to
deprive the movement of its real significance, but at
the same time the personal contribution of the main
artists related to it must be emphasized. The more
one studies their pictures, the more one realizes that they
are each the unique expression of powerful and original
personalities."

Paul Cezanne --

-- --

figure 18) The Blue Vase
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

"Though Cezanne had moved since 1861 in the same
circle as the future Impressionists, his painting
had no connection with theirs for another ten years
when he settled at Auverssur-Oise and listened to
Pissarro's advice. Only then did the stormy style of
his first period disappear and he painted peaceful
landscapes in serene colours. But he was already less
attracted by the fugitive than the permanent! he already
refused to allow the form of objects to be blurred by
the enveloping atmosphere. He constantly emphasized the
structure of the painting and for this the houses, rocks,

tree-trunks, everything that is massive, solid and can
be defined by geometric lines were an essential element
in his works." 19

S

Edgar Degas

figure 19) at the cafe
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
56
"Although Degas belonged to the Impressionist
group and showed at nearly all their exhibitions, he
had very little in common with either Monet or Renoir.
He rarely painted landscapes and had little interest
in the out-of-doors. He looks for the instantaneous
in the movement of a human being or a horse: the light
20
which he analyses is preferably indoors and often artificial."
S

Edward Manet

figure 20) Claude Monet painting on his boat

Edward Manet (1832-1883)

"Manet neither claimed to throw over old forms
of painting, nor to create new ones. He simply sought
to be himself and no one else."21

Claude Monet

L..2L. St.

figure 21) The Magpie
Claude Monet (1840-1926)

"No one represents Impressionism better than
Monet, no one has illustrated it with greater boldness,
22
more logic and less compromise."

Auguste Renoir

figure 22) The Girl with the Blue Hat

Auguste Renoir (1841-1914)

"Monet, Pissarro and Sisely are above all landscape
painters. Renoir is mainly, if not entirely, a painter of
figures. He too made a religion of lightly he brought it
into play in each of his pictures, but rather than
attempt to catch it, when fleetingly it alters skies,
water, grass and trees, he took pleasure in seeing
it caress the face or the naked body of a young woman.
Furthermore, although he wanted the light to penetrate
bodies, he did not want them to be dissolved in it."23

0

Alfred Sisley

figure 23) Boat during a flood
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

0o "Sisley at the outset was close to Corot and
even when he allowed himself to be led towards
Impressionism by Monet, he still did not stray far
from his master. However, if his senses were as easily
awakened and his conception no less tender than that
of his predecessor, his colours are more differentiated,
as they owe less to fancy than to observation."

Neo-Impressionism

"It is rare to find painters like the Neo-
Impressionists, who have such a clear idea of what they
want; rarely have artists felt so strongly the urge
to put their ideas and methods on paper. Not only
did Paul Signac, a member of their group, publish
in 1899 a long treatise, but in 1890, four years after
the first public appearance of the movement, Georges
Seurat, the leader of the new school, felt the need
to define his aesthetic theories in lapidary terms.

There were to be no vague perceptions recorded
approximately with "random brush strokes", Signac
said to sum up. The Neo-Impressionists analyzed
closely what they saw and reproduced it by differentiating
systematically between the local colour of the objects,
the colour of the lighting and their reactions one
upon the other. They carefully read Chevreals book
The Law of Simultaneous Contrasts, they knew the
works of the physicists, Helmholtz, Maxwell and N.O.
Rood, and did their best to take into account the
teachings of science. Instead of blending colours, the
Neo-Impressionists substituted optical blending. They
placed their colours side by side, so that they should
remain pure on the canvas and only combine in the eyes
of the spectator, while preserving their luminosity
and their glow. Their distinct touches were in theory
meant to be "proportioned to the size of the picture".
They took the form of a small spot or point, which led
to the coining of the word pointillismm". Signac,
however, protested "Neo-Impressionism does not make
a point, but a division" of colour and "dividing
ensures all the advantages of luminosity, colour and
harmony....."

How did art adjust itself to so much logic?
Unsuccessfully, one must admit, and a number of the
Neo-Impressionist pictures became arid from having been
executed too systematically. In fact what gave its
importance to the movement was not its "precise and
scientific method", but rather the part that it
played in the freeing of colour, and the serious
attention it paid to grouping and composition, both
by line and colour.

During the years that saw the break-up of the
Impressionist group (its last exhibition took place
in 1886), and the development of the movement, its
adherents often dreamed of the advantages that art could
derive from its relations with science. Besides .about
1886-1890, Neo-Impressionism was far from appearing
a dead end. The group around Seurat and Signac not
only included Camille Pissarro and his son, Lucien,
H.E. Cross, Angrand, M. Luce and others, even Toulouse
Lautrec, Gauguin, and Van Gogh followed5it in practice
although they rejected its theories."

Paul Gauguin

figure 24) Arearea

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

61 "Up to the age of thirty-four, Gauguin was nothing
but an amateur painter, who was friendly with Pissarro
and came under his influence. Then suddenly in 1883, in
order to be able to "paint every day", he left his very
lucrative job with a Paris stockbroker, turning his back
on prosperity before finally turning it on his wife and
five children. From then on, poverty, suffering and
bitterness were to be his lot and the conviction that he
had only followed his destiny both consoled and exasperated
him."

Camille Pissarro

figure 25) Girl with a Twig
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)

"Like Sisley, Pissarro began by being under the
influence of Corot and like him he was later guided
by Monet, both towards Impressionism and towards the
assertion of his own personality. Pissarro and Sisely
also possessed a similar sensibility, although one
finds in the former work a note2ff anxiety which is
lacking in that of the latter."

Georges Seurat

figure 26) Standing Model
Georges Seurat (1819-1891)

"Writers and critics see poetry in what I
produce. No, I merely apply my principles; that is all".
When Seurat said this, he was no doubt speaking about
his experiments, but he was mistaken about the significance
of his art, where fortunately the presence of the poetry
is undeniable. Of all the Neo-Impressionists, he is in fact
the only artist whose sensibility was never stifled by the
rigidity of the system. This shows how vital that

0

sensibility must have been and how much at ease in
respecting the strictest of rulesSeurat was. Seurat
was one of those artists who dislike pouring themselves
out, are inclined to conceal their emotions and hide
them under an appearance of coldness created by a careful
composition and meticulous technique." 28

*

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec

figure 27) Jane Avril

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec (1864-1901)

"Artistic activity and destiny were as closely
connected in Toulouse Lautrec as in Van Gogh and Gauguin.
He was descended.from the Counts of Toulouse and his father
was an eccentric with a passion for hunting and horses. He
broke both his legs in childhood, so that he grew up a
crippled dwarf who could only walk with difficulty. This
infirmity determined the flavour of his art just as it
determined the course and details of his life." 29

*

Vincent Van Gogh

figure 28) Self Portrait

Vincent Van Gogh

"The exemplary destiny of Vincent Van Gogh is
well-known. It has often been said that there are few
works which convey such a tragic sense of life. But
this consensus has also served to create misunderstandings.
If Van Goghs work has continued to fascinate so many

*

people, it is not so much on account of the drama
inherent in his life as on account of the absolute
^ sincerity with which he transposed this drama in his
painting. In the last analysis, it is the paintings
themselves that are important and that speak to us.
It is thus not paradoxical to affirm that if Van Gogh's
painting expresses a tragic sense of life, it is also
one of the most harmonious ever to have been created-
67 harmonious even in its failure to resist the madness
that finally overwhelmed the artist.

This sincerity, at one and the same time
both desperate and redemptive, is also expressed in
Van Gogh's correspondence, one of the most powerful
literary documents of the nineteenth century. Van
Gogh wrote with the same passionate intensity with
which he painted. Even in his letters it is apparent
that his most overriding desire was to paint. Indeed,
Van Gogh saw no difference between painting and life.
For him, to paint was to live."

Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 at Groot
Zundert, in North Brabant, Holland. Because of what
is termed "a near blinding revelation" Van Gogh,
through his paintings of labour, poverty, workmen and
peasants became the first of the Dutch Expressionists.
He became a painter so that he might resolve an inner
conflict, he wanted to take revenge for all of his
failures in the domain of art.

At an early age Van Gogh went to Paris where
~70 he read all the books within his reach, visited

museums, underwent the influence of humanitarian
writers and of painters concerned with the sufferings
of the humble. By 1880 Van Gogh had suffered defeats

in love, religion, employment, etc. and began to study
71 drawing. He took refuge in art. He went on drawing and
studying art until 1887 when he suddenly took off to
Paris. While there he met Pissarro, Degas, Gauguin,
Signac, Toulouse Lautrec and Emil Bernard. At this
time Van Gogh really started to work with his painting,
did much studying and felt such a need to emulate the
Impressionists that he did some two hundred pictures
during the twenty months of his stay in Paris.

When Van Gogh left Paris, he took the advice
of Toulouse Lautrec and went to Arles for a stay. Here
he immediately felt very happy and with ease and
enthusiasm he drew with a reed, painted well-balanced
canvases, firmly arranged, almost serene. At last he
had found clear-cut contours, light without a shadow,
pure colour, dazzling,crackeling vermilion red, Prussian
blue, emerald green, sacred yellow, the emblem of the
sun. It was at this time that he shed the finery of
Impressionism, gave up the divided stroke, fragmented
design and subtle modulations. His painting became more
vigorous, precise and incisive and his line began
to capture the inner structure of objects.

Van Gogh was so caught up in his painting that
he painted nearly two hundred pictures in the span of
twenty months. In spite of this, his material existence
was most precarious he had not enough to eat and he
sold nothing. The idea of death haunted him. He was
so afraid of death that he hurried, worked furiously,
in a state of exaltation. It was this rapid work
pace that saved him from despair. His pictures dripped
75 with golden light and he was in the center of the
"universal fusion" that transmuted his colours and
consumed his brain. Van Gogh at this time was trying to
start an artists colony and was counting on Gauguin
to give some help. The two, with opposing natures, argued

and in a fit of rage Van Gogh cut off an ear, wrapped
it in a handkerchief, and went to offer it as a present
to a girl in a brothel.

His unattractive appearance, his touchy character
and his whims had alienated people. He was considered
to be mad and was sent back to the hospital. The Arles
period was over, the most fruitful if not the most
original of his career. Unbalanced, painful, tragic, such
was certainly his life. That he suffered from neurosis
and epilepsy is equally true. Van Gogh felt very
vividly that his life was a failure and he suffered
deeply from it. He gave himself to painting with all
the more passion and through art was able to overcome
his physical failings.

Vincent Van Gogh died in 1890 at the age of
37. He was a painter, a poet, a mystic and a thinker.
No artist today raises more passionate an interest
than he, his paintings, his drawings and his correspondence.
But, if the man died prematurely, the work remains, and
contemporary painting was, in a great measure, born
of it.